The fun way to work

As I go through and get the UI stuff out for the Mirak, I thought I might discuss the process of doing it. As I don't have any specific tools for working on the Q3, it is a fun little path to wonder.

First, I had extracted all the images from the file, with a so-so program I wrote. I didn't have the full format down at that time so some images are alittle funky. So for the Mirak UI, I started looking through all the images looking to see if I can find an image from the combat UI for the Mirak. I didn't find one as I paged through the few thousand images, but came across a Lyran image for the movement control (the one at the top of the UI). So I took note of the offset of the image, then opened up my sector editor (I love my sector editor) and did a search for the offset numbers. This would give me the asset that points to the image.

I then take the asset number off the image pointer, and do a search for a reference to that asset number (this is usually a search backwards through the file). When found, this will be the asset I need. Since this one is the Lyran and not the Mirak, I look at what it was named. It was LL_A3_HELM. So now I have the name for that part of the UI. The game uses the first two letters for the race, so for the Mirak it is ZZ_A3_HELM (yes, Mirak use ZZ since they are the Kzinti). So then I do a search for the new name of ZZ_A3_HELM. As the Q3 usually groups like parts togeather, I start looking down from there and when I don't see any references to ZZ anymore I cut the file off and print it out (I need to see it in copy to work on it as I can look at multiple pages at once this way)

Then I will build a table of what names and asset numbers are used for the UI (referencing back to the folder of images to see what each image being referenced is). After I get this table put togeather, then I will be able to change the images to new ones. By converting the images to the Q3 format, then manually coping chunks of the file to insert the new images at the end of the images in the Q3 (change the reference to where the images end and the assets start). Then edit every image asset so it points to the new images I just put in. (again by hand in the sector editor). If all goes well, after this is done, the Mirak will have a new interface. Might have to tweek some of the kerning on the font to make sure it fits in the spaces (kerning is the spacing on the font, you can move each phrase pixil by pixil up,down,right,or left as needed). Probably will end up with about a hundred things to change, but not sure yet. Have sixteen pages printed out and it isn't the whole Mirak interface yet.

Well, that is the fun I go through to do this, just to let you know why it takes alittle time.